Manufacturing news briefs — stories you might have missed

Treasury backs intervention to cut energy prices Treasury has taken the unusual step of backing ‘temporary and regularly reviewed’ market intervention to rein in high coal and gas prices. A statement from Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy read to a Senate estimates committee said price shocks “bring into scope government intervention”, though the government should not…

Calix awarded $947,000 for engineering and design study on demo-scale iron factory

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has announced $947,000 in funding to Calix, supporting an investigation into the feasibility of a hydrogen direct reduced iron (DRI) plant using the Australian company’s Zero Emissions Steel Technology (ZESTY) process. According to a statement from ARENA, the funding would assist a pre-FEED and FEED (Front End Engineering and Design)…

Leading economists back federal government action to curb rising gas and electricity prices

By Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Australia’s top economists have overwhelmingly endorsed intervention to restrain gas and electricity prices, with only three of the 47 leading economists surveyed believing the best thing the government can do is to leave things to the market. The 47 economists surveyed are members of…

New ARC Carbon Science and Innovation centre awarded funding

The UNSW-led Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation has been awarded $35 million in federal funding, and aims to “revolutionise carbon science” to create new carbon-based catalysts for use in renewable energy generation, carbon capture and clean chemical production.  Scientia Professor Liming Dai (pictured), who is also Founding Director of the…

USQ leads bid for ten-year hemp CRC

University of Southern Queensland is leading a bid for a ten-year Cooperative Research Centre, which would “explore the immense production possibilities of hemp”. According to a statement from USQ on Monday, core research areas would include production, health and materials streams. Supporters of a thriving industrial hemp industry in Australia point to attributes such as…